(Notre Dame) — What was the difference between Notre Dame losing to Georgia Tech in Atlanta and beating them in South Bend?

The simple answer is Markus Burton.

The sophomore from Penn High School missed the first game with Tech because of a knee injury. Tuesday night, he scored 18 of his team-high 26 points in the second half as Notre Dame rallied late to down the Yellow Jackets, 71-68, evening their mark at 10-10 for the season.

“A lot of our guys were kinda panicking, but I was in the huddle telling the guys ‘take our time, we’re gonna win'” noted Burton afterwards. “It’s a game of runs. Obviously we got the job done in the last five minutes and made a lot of big plays down the stretch.”

No one made more plays than Burton, who drilled consecutive three-pointers…the second one with 1:49 remaining to give Notre Dame its first lead of the night at 64-62. One minute later, Kebba Njie scored on a layup and the Irish were never threatened after that.

“We’ve been through a lot of tough times,” admitted Burton. “This year hasn’t been the best, but our team is a lot better than what our record says.”

The Irish didn’t look better than the record for most of the night, seeming to be lackadaisical in covering three-pointers in the first half on defense and settling for bad shots on offense.  Notre Dame closed the first half on a 12-5 run, capped by Matt Allocco’s buzzer-beating three to tie the game at 37 at the break.

The second half started poorly, as the Irish didn’t even get a shot to the rim in their first six possessions, as Tech opened up an eight-point lead. That’s when Burton took charge.

“I feel like in the first half I was just going through the motions, trying to get everybody involved,” shrugged Burton. “The second half I kinda had to let it rip so we could get the job done.”

Braeden Shrewsberry added 15 for the Irish. Naithan George led Georgia Tech with 20, but the Yellow Jackets still have not won in South Bend since 1990.

Notre Dame now heads to Sunshine State for the next two games, facing Miami Saturday night before taking on Florida State in Tallahassee Tuesday night.